Privacy Policy

The Boy Scouts of America is committed to respecting and protecting the personal privacy of its members and those who visit its Web site. It is our policy to acquire personal information from users only by overt means, only when it is in the interest of the user to provide it, and to utilize this information only for the purpose it was provided. Sites may collect the same personal information that is required on paper forms to register and become a member of the Boy Scouts of America. We do not use agents or service providers.

The information that follows explains the kinds of information BSA Web sites may collect, how it is used, and the conditions under which it is made available to third parties, how information is maintained, and our compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) protects the personal information of children under the age of 13.

NOTE: This privacy policy applies to Scouting.org and to ScoutNET.Scouting.org, Official sites of the Boy Scouts of America. This privacy policy does not apply to any particular council's or unit's Web site, as their content is not controlled by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Please contact the administrator or Webmaster of any council, unit, or other Scouting-oriented Web site for information about their privacy policies and the information they collect about their site visitors.

What information does this site collect and use?

The Scouting.org site functions for the benefit of visitors to provide information on the membership opportunities of the Boy Scouts of America and the methods by which interested persons and organizations may affiliate with and support the program of the Boy Scouts of America.

The ScoutNET.Scouting.org site functions for the benefit of councils and individuals in administering and delivering the programs of the Boy Scouts of America. To that end this site collects personally identifiable information (PII) to facilitate membership registration and participation in our programs. For example, we collect information such as, but not limited to name, address, phone, Date of Birth, gender, and e-mail address of members and parents/guardians. Additional information including, but not limited to Driver's License and Social Security Number, may be collected for leader applicants in order to facilitate background checks of applicants for their participation in the Boy Scouts of America.

Furthermore, program specific information may be collected, tracked and stored to help the member, their parent/guardian and the adult leader facilitate the administration of the BSA programs. Examples would include, but are not limited to an individual's interest, participation, advancement and progress in the BSA programs. All information collected is used for the facilitation and development of BSA programs and is only shared with BSA's business partners in aggregate form for the purposes stated above.

In some situations the user may be asked to voluntarily provide feedback on the site. The questions relate to ease of use, any problems encountered in using the site, site performance (speed) and the general look and feel of the site. Personally identifiable information is not asked for or collected through this process. This information will be used to assist in rectifying problems with the system and improving its usability and performance.

This site also collects anonymous data that is not typically indicative of and cannot be traced to an individual without the cooperation of their Internet Service Provider. This data includes information about the user's remote IP address, referral data (which page "linked" to the present request), and the browser software's user-agent string. This information is accepted passively from the HTTP headers that are sent from the user when requesting any file from the server. Other anonymous data entered by the user may be collected in a common repository, including terms entered into the search engine, ZIP codes entered into the council locator, etc.

The anonymous information collected is used to monitor the usage of this Web site and the interests of those who use it. Data such as the volume of traffic to the server, the number of visitors a certain section of the site receives each month, or the most popular search terms are analyzed to derive general statistics about the site's reach and the audience's usage patterns.

Use of Cookies

Visitors should be aware that non-personal information and data may be automatically collected by the Boy Scouts of America sites through the use of "cookies." "Cookies" are small text files a Web site can use to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate the visitor's ongoing access to and use of the site, and allow a site to track usage behavior and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements. Cookies are not programs that come onto a visitor's system and damage files. Generally, cookies work by assigning a unique number to the visitor that has no meaning outside the assigning site. If a visitor does not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows the visitor to deny or accept the cookie feature. Boy Scouts of America uses "cookie" technology only to obtain non-personal information from its online visitors in order to improve visitors' online experience and facilitate their visit within our site.

Boy Scouts of America may also use a method known as "session tokens." The "session token" is a cryptic number that identifies your browser session to our server. This "session token" is stored in the memory of your browser for up to 30 minutes after your last activity on our site and may be completely destroyed by you by closing your browser. This allows the server to continue the "conversation" with you in context of the process or transaction you are involved in. This "session token" is changed automatically during your session for security purposes and is not written to your hard drive. The "session token" does not contain any personally identifiable information; the "session token" is required to use certain systems.

Personally identifiable data is collected only by means of form interfaces on the site, into which the unit administrator must enter the personal information requested. No cookies or any other tracking technology (other than stated above) are used for the purpose of coordinating information that a user may opt to enter in various interfaces on the site.

Service-related Announcements

We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an e-mail. We may also e-mail official information as pertains to your Boy Scouts of America membership.

Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.

Choice/Opt-out

If you do not wish to receive promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them in MyScouting by selecting My Account and clicking Update Personal Information.

Providing an e-mail address ensures that you will receive notification of transactions involving your account. Additionally, you may receive other Scouting-related information via e-mail. If you prefer not to receive this additional information, please deselect the checkbox.

Access to Personally Identifiable Information

If your personally identifiable information changes you may update it by logging into MyScouting. Select My Account and click Update Personal Information.

With whom does the BSA share the information that is collected?

The BSA only permits access to personal information by authorized and authenticated unit and council members. The personal information collected is not shared with other third parties. Reports, statistics, and other analyses of aggregate anonymous information may be shared within the organization or provided to third parties at the sole discretion of the Boy Scouts of America. This information does not include any personally identifiable information.

Exception: the Boy Scouts of America reserves the right to use all information at its disposal and to share this information with ISPs and other third parties as necessary to investigate any incident of misuse or abuse of its site, server, or information systems. Additionally, we reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Web site.

How does the BSA maintain the information it collects?

The security of your personal information is important to us. All communications between your browser and our system is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL).You will notice the "Locked" ICON appear in the lower right corner of your browser (Internet Explorer). We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. All servers are protected and monitored by leading firewall technology 24 hours a day.

Changes in this Privacy Statement

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by e-mail, or by means of a notice on our home page.

Links to Other Sites

If you click on a link to a third party site, which includes council sites, unit sites, and sites of BSA affiliates, you will leave the scouting.org or the scoutnet.scouting.org site you are visiting and go to the site you selected. Because we cannot control the activities of third parties, we cannot accept responsibility for any use of your personally identifiable information by such third parties, and we cannot guarantee that they will adhere to the same privacy practices as Boy Scouts of America. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of any other service provider from whom you request services. If you visit a third party website, you should read that site's privacy statement before providing any personal information.